Gas Cap Gopher: A Senior Surreal Photo by Jeremy Arce (2017)

Upon submitting my artwork for my surrealist project, I first began with 3 minutes with my eyes shut, and earplugs in my ears to completely tap in with my inner thinking. My inner thinking led me to imagining where I could really hone in with my dreams. In this dreamlike realm, I imagined Bryant Ave., the street that I became most familiar with since my reassignment at continuation school. Working there for so long lead me to imagine how my graduation should be and imagined what owning a Corvette would feel like after graduation. With my father's goals met, after being kicked out of Alta-Vista for a triggering t-shirt, and making up 35+ credits at Adult Education to formally return to Los Altos. Another imagination I had was Los Altos High School. Ultimately, my surrealist imagination wandered to the drives I had with my father in his Corvette. We drove to places near Stanford where we would photoshop statues. This is where my imagination lead to seeing gophers in gopher holes.

After completely imagining my surrealist image, I started to construct the image of the Corvette that I wanted to have when I graduated. I also morphed a gopher that I saw with my dad into a hole of the car. Using Photoshop, I began to construct the gas cap of the Corvette as a deep hole, so that I could place a gopher coming from that hole. This was done finding an image that I could take off of the internet of a gopher and then pasting it into the hole that I have made in the gas cap of the car. Ultimately, my surrealist image became a symbol of what kind of experiences I’ve had with my dad. All of the quality time that I had with my dad translated into what I could see in my surrealist imagination.